Monday, April 17, 2017

Edna’s Restaurant – April 13, 1957

Edna’s Restaurant on Route 6 west of Lorain is one of those topics that seem to pop up on my blog again and again. Above is a full-page ad for the Grand Opening of the business that ran in the Lorain Journal on April 13, 1957.

It’s a strange ad. No photo of “the newest most modern family restaurant” – just a bunch of clip art of hands with some space-age graphics thrown in.

As you can see, even in 1957 – decades after the Lake Shore Electric went out of existence – the only address in the ad is still Stop 111 West Lake Road. But after writing about Edna’s Restaurant several times (including this most recent post), I know that the new building in the ad is what we now know as the old Tiffany’s Steakhouse next to Skate World.

Here’s another ad (below) for Edna’s that I found recently. This one ran in the Lorain Journal in the big 125th Anniversary of Lorain edition in July 1959. The ad mentions that Edna had been serving truckers since 1953, but I have no idea where the business was located then; I was unable to find any listing of Ed or Edna Mitchell in any of the older directories.

As I’ve noted in a previous post, by the time of the 1960 city directory, Edna had moved her business to the south side of the highway to a smaller building and acquired a real address: 4875 West Erie.

Why did she move her business? I don’t know; maybe she lost her lease. I hope to find out someday, or at least find an ad that acknowledges the move.

By the way, there’s been some activity at the former restaurant building on West Erie in the last month, with a dumpster stationed outside for a while.